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Recent years have seen many changes in the Tower of London’s surroundings, but the desire to enhance people’s experience of the area is an old one. In 1922 the Reverend Philip T. B. Clayton, founder of the Christian welfare organisation Toc H, was appointed Vicar of All Hallows on Tower Hill. ‘Tubby’, as he was known to all, was most unimpressed. The area was strongly influenced by its proximity to docklands and heavily involved with shipping and cargo handling. It was dominated by oppressive Victorian offices and warehouses, Trinity Square was used as a lorry park and his historic old church was completely overshadowed by an ugly edifice known as the Mazawattee Building. Apart from a tacky kiosk, there were few facilities for visitors, either tourists or local people who came at weekends to enjoy street entertainers, soap-box orators or paddling on the muddy foreshore in front of Tower Wharf. There was nothing worthy of the area’s historic importance or its position as the eastern gateway to the City. In his fertile imagination the idea of ‘Tower Hill Improvement’ was born.
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